McLaren close the gap, but is it enough?

Tuesday testing in Barcelona looked to be a step forward in the right direction for McLaren.

On a day that Ferrari didn’t run (they start their latest test sessions today), the McLaren was the second quickest car in Barcelona and only 0.366 seconds behind Mark Webber for Red Bull.

Other good news for McLaren was that they managed to run 74 laps, which was still 23 laps less than Red Bull, due to an early morning exhaust problem for McLaren, but another step forward for the team who are playing catch up with their new 2011 car, due to their late development.

‘It hasn’t been the best start to the year in terms of mileage, reliability and pace but we have made some progress,’ the 2009 Formula One World champion Jenson Button told the media on Tuesday evening.

‘The laps I spent on the circuit on lower and higher fuel were quite a good improvement on what I experienced here at the last test.

‘There is still more work needed to be as quick as Red Bull, Ferrari and maybe one or two other teams.

‘You’re not going to be happy being the third fastest team, but there is a lot you can do from that position, and considering the last few tests and our pace, you’d be reasonably be happy with that.’

McLaren tested a new front wing and a modified exhaust during the test, for anyone who hasn’t seen the photos, they are well worth a look, to say it looked bizarre would be an understatement!

Jenson Button hops out of the McLaren for today’s test and Lewis Hamilton gets to take the car for a spin, McLaren will hope to continue to make inroads into the Red Bull and Ferrari with further updates expected to be added during the next few days.